IPS 2025 Midtem in Peru: post photos here!

[Cindy Adair]

We’re staying very busy and only intermittent internet. 

Here’s a teaser of the Ceroxylon forest we loved yesterday. Lots of seedlings once we entered areas cattle can’t reach.

[Tracy S]

Gocta falls today. This beautiful little town was so friendly and well kept. They had painted murals on many of the buildings. Here are a couple examples. 

[Tracy S]

Picture of the gocta falls

[Hu Palmeras]

Beautiful photos. They fill us with joy. I hope you enjoy the trip and its adventures even more.

[Tracy S]

Bill Baker (Kew) descending the Bosque de palmeras Ocol. This is where we saw hundreds of ceroxylons.

Norm from Hawaii having a grand time hiking in the forest.

Notice the boots on each of them. It was muddy and slippery. I learned the value of using a walking stick.

 

[tim_brissy_13]

10 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

We’re staying very busy and only intermittent internet. 

Here’s a teaser of the Ceroxylon forest we loved yesterday. Lots of seedlings once we entered areas cattle can’t reach.

That’s great news about the seedlings Cindy.
 

Thanks everyone for the amazing photos in this thread! 

[Cindy Adair]

There will be more “palm portraits” with Latin names, but too busy today. Many head home this morning but I am lucky enough to head to Cajamarca with a small group. 
 

Yesterday orchids in bloom and dormant were numerous along the road so we happily took a break from the long bus rides. 

There were many plants which we were happy to even get to the family level of identification. 
 

 

I was told this strikingly yellow plant was some form of mistlestoe.

And all ages of Dictyocaryum surrounded us. This baby was low enough that I could reverse the leaf to show off the silver underside. 

 

Look at that crownshaft color. 

 

Note stilt roots on the left. 

 

So many Dictyocaryum palms!!

 

[Tracy S]

We went to an orchid garden and saw these amazing hummingbirds. This is a short video of just one of the many feeders.

I saw this really cool heliconia plant that had fuzzy flowers. I've never seen it before. Super cool.

The gardens had a huge collection of orchids as well.

 

[Mandrew968]

Unknown Geonoma ankle-biter

[Mandrew968]

Prestoea longivaginata

[Mandrew968]

Geonoma undata

[Mandrew968]

Dictyocaryum lamarckianum

[Mandrew968]

The palms were great, but the people are what makes the IPS the most special group on the planet. 

[Mandrew968]

Ceroxylon vogelianum

[Mandrew968]

Ceroxylon parvifrons

[Mandrew968]

Ceroxylon echinulatum

[Mandrew968]

Ceroxylon peruvianum

[Cindy Adair]

Great photos and video everyone! Thanks so much for taking the time to post here. 
 

[Mandrew968]

Ceroxylon quindiuense

[Mandrew968]

 

[Tracy S]

Yikes!

 

[Jonathan]

Hmmm...loving the Ceroxylons, the amenities and local delicacies, not so much! 

Great pics guys, thanks for keeping us posted.

[peachy]

On 9/19/2025 at 7:06 AM, Cindy Adair said:

Many beautiful views along the walk to the ruins! Not a palm viewing day but pretty bromeliads and some orchids too. 
 

The wet season begins in October I am told and after that many more blooms. 

At last a photo of things that actually live for me.  Better colour range than mine however. Continue the adventuring Cindy.

Peachy

[tim_brissy_13]

13 hours ago, Mandrew968 said:

Prestoea longivaginata

Great photos @Mandrew968! I need to know more about this one. I can’t find reference to Prestoea longivaginata anywhere, but there’s P longipetiolata, Geonoma longivaginata and Euterpe precatoria var longivaginata but none of those seem right. Any further info and what elevation roughly was this?

[Mandrew968]

8 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Great photos @Mandrew968! I need to know more about this one. I can’t find reference to Prestoea longivaginata anywhere, but there’s P longipetiolata, Geonoma longivaginata and Euterpe precatoria var longivaginata but none of those seem right. Any further info and what elevation roughly was this?

Thanks for catching that-we are looking at a Euterpe-yes, the only one that was in this area and elevation. 

[Mandrew968]

Chamaedorea pauciflora at about 2500' elevation 

[Mandrew968]

Mauritiella armata and what looks to be another species with the wider leaflets and absence of silver on the abaxial leaf. 

[Mandrew968]

Unknown acaulescent Attalea in the lowland amazon forest.

[Mandrew968]

Unknown Geonoma and Lepidocayum tenue with wonderfully fragrant flowers.

[Mandrew968]

[Mandrew968]

[SeanK]

On 9/20/2025 at 10:28 PM, Tracy S said:

Bill Baker (Kew) descending the Bosque de palmeras Ocol. This is where we saw hundreds of ceroxylons.

Norm from Hawaii having a grand time hiking in the forest.

Notice the boots on each of them. It was muddy and slippery. I learned the value of using a walking stick.

 

Shillelaghs mandatory.

[palmfriend]

This is mind blowing - THANK YOU for all of those images. Nothing beats pictures taken in habitat!

Absolutely great, thank you for sharing -

 

Lars

 

[Mandrew968]

Excellent Euterpe environment where we stayed, during our first leg. 

The larger more robust solitary species is precatoria. The clustering ethereal species is catinga. First time seeing either in habitat, but catinga stole the show...

[Mandrew968]

A few high elevation bromeliads, in the Ceroxylon forest.

[Mandrew968]

More cool stuff...

[Mandrew968]

Amazing amazing amazing group of people-and we were missing some! 

[realarch]

Fantastic photos of your journey. Mahalo for taking time to post for the folks back home including the ‘fried beyond recognition’ Cuy. 

Tim

[Mandrew968]

Geonoma stricta

[ASHCVS]

On 9/22/2025 at 1:50 PM, Mandrew968 said:

Ceroxylon parvifrons

We saw these on the road to Cajamarca at well over 10,000 feet elevation. Would love to have stopped the bus to take photographs but on this precarious single dirt lane “highway” with a steep vertical drop of over 2 miles km chose to just take a picture in our memory (and not stop the bus with three tires on the road and one hanging off the side😄).